The present invention relates to a composite multilayer ceramic structure and, in particular, to a controlled force or force limited multilayer ceramic actuator which comprises a combination of an electrostrictive actuator and sensor.
Multilayer ceramic actuators in which a plurality of layers of a dielectric material are separated by a plurality of electrode layers are known in the art. We have now developed a composite multilayer ceramic structure in which a multilayer electrostrictive ceramic actuator is combined with a sensor in a single device.